HAZARDOUS WASTES 1

Introduction to Environmental Engineering

HAZARDOUS WASTES:
- are wastes that requires special precautions in its storage, collection, transportation,
treatment or disposal to prevent damage to persons or property, and includes explosive,
flammable, volatile, radioactive, toxic and pathological wastes” (EPA, 1975)
- Hazardous Wastes are solid wastes or a combination of solid wastes w/c because of the
quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may cause or
significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or
incapacitating reversible illness
- Pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment
when improperly treated, stored, transported or disposed of or otherwise managed

CHARACTERISTICS OF HAZARDOUS WASTES:

 Toxicity -- poisonous (acute) and have carcinogenic, tetratogenic, or mutagenic effect
on human and other organisms. Toxic wastes are harmful or fatal when ingested or
absorbed (e.g., containing mercury, lead, etc.). When toxic wastes are land disposed,
contaminated liquid may leach from the waste and pollute ground water.
 Ignitibility -- Ignitable wastes can create fires under certain conditions, are
spontaneously combustible, or have a flash point less than 60 °C (140 °F). Examples
include waste oils and used solvents.
 Corrosivity – Corrosive wastes are acids or bases (pH less than or equal to 2, or greater
than or equal to 12.5) that are capable of corroding metal containers, such as storage
tanks, drums, and barrels. They can cause severe damage to exposed tissues. Battery
acid is an example.
 Reactivity -- Reactive wastes are unstable under "normal" conditions. They can cause
explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with
water. Examples include lithium-sulfur batteries and explosives.

LIST OF HAZARDOUS WASTES:

 Spent halogenated solvents used for degreasing such as trichloroethylene, methylene
chloride
 Spent non-halogenated solvents such as xylene, acetone, ethyl benzene, ethyl ether
 Wastewater treatment sludges from electroplating operations
 Dewatered air pollution control scrubber sludges from coke ovens and blast furnaces
 Sludge generated during the production of various chromium compounds
 API separator sludges from petroleum refineries

EXCEPTED WASTES:
 Domestic sewage & irrigation return flows
 Mine tailings
 Animal manures
 Mining overburden
 Fly ash & bottom ash
 Drilling fluids
 Wastes from crude oil
 Natural gas
 Geothermal energy development
 Nuclear & radioactive wastes (controlled separately under another act)

HAZARDOUS WASTES CONSIDERED:

1. Radioactive materials
2. Medical wastes
3. Non-radioactive liquid industrial wastes

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NUCLEAR WASTES:
- from uranium fuel

Disposal of Wastes/Completion of the Fuel Cycle

1. Separating the valuable residual Plutonium from uranium & from fission products in a
chemical reprocessing plants
2. Disposing the fuel into an underground repository

*the fission products must be immobilized by incorporation in a glass or ceramic matrix

before disposal in a similar repository

Health and Environmental Effects:

From low level wastes
 generated from uranium mining & uranium operations w/c release small
amounts of Thorium-230, Radium-226, Radon-222 & lead-210, as well as
non-radioactive ionic species to the environment
 damage occurs over a long period of time
 example: Ra-226 – ingestion results in blood & bone disorders Ra- 222 –
cause cancer to Uranium miners

From High level wastes

 wastes are produced in relatively small volume in the reactor fuel core
wherein in a short time the the fresh fuel becomes intensely radioactive
 lethal when cooling of the fuel in the reactor should be interrupted
 integrity of the fuel cladding can be destroyed
 lethal amounts of the fission products released inside the containment
structure of the reactor building
Tailings of Uranium
 pose several problems since they contain mineral, chemical & radioactive
contaminants
 returning the tailings to the mine where it was extracted would interfere
w/ the mining of further ore (volume of tailings is usually 30-40% > that
of the parent rock due to the comminution process
 most uranium mining companies plan their operations so as to dispose of
tailings in carefully engineered surface facilities
 toxic metal contaminants such as As, Cd, Hg, Mo, Va & Zn are found
along w/ Fe
 inorganic contaminants are also present including ammonium, chloride,
and sulfate ions in such concentrations as to present a threat to the
nearby environment
 Radioactive contamination from U-238 & its daughters
 Of environmental concerns are isotopes such as thorium-230, radium-
226 and radon-222 with their radioactive daughters
 Radium-226 is a low-level radioactive hazard for several hundred
thousand yr since it has a shorter half-life (1600 yrs)
 Radium-226 tailings are deposited mainly on the surface of smaller
particles thus are subject to slow dissolution & transport by waters
percolating through the deposits
 since Ra is chemically similar to Ca it may be transferred in humans into
the bone structure
 Long term exposure to amounts as small as 1 mg in the body can lead to
serious bone damage

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 Radium-226 & Radon-222 are quickly diluted by the surrounding air

mass so that distances beyond about 1 km from the tailings deposits
have radiation levels that are not normally neglected
 e.g. hazard to building occupants
 10,000 lung cancer fatalities/yr in U.S. (Cohen,1980)

From Power Reactors

 99% of the nuclear wastes from power reactors are in the form of fission
products w/c are sealed w/in the spent-fuel bundles
 these bundles are extremely radioactive due to the decay of fission
products & transuranic isotopes & their daughters
 some of the decay energy is transmitted to the uranium matrix thus fuel
must be cooled to prevent a rise in the cladding temperature to a point
where it could react chemically in the atmosphere & lose its integrity

Mine & Mill Tailings

 storage & disposal of tailings are site-specific problems
 solutions will be dependent on local climate, topography, and geology
and on the nature of mining operation (e.g. whether it is underground or
open pit)
 proximity of populated areas will also have an impact on the engineering
design
 in arid regions : disposal of tailings in a depression below ground level
followed by covering the deposit w/ a protective thickness of soil, sand,
gravel or crushed rock
 areas where precipitation is higher: focused on designs that minimize
dissolution of Ra-226, toxic metal ions & other contaminants such as
sulfates & chlorides
 environmentally safe storage must be provided for the long term
 continue intensive research & development efforts

BIOMEDICAL WASTES
Types of Wastes:
 Cultures & stocks of infectious agents
 Human pathological wastes
 Human blood & blood products
 Sharp implements (used & unused)
 Contaminated animal wastes
 Isolation waste from patients w/ highly communicable diseases

Control of Biomedical Wastes

 On-site incineration where ash disposal is to a sanitary landfill
 Sterilization
 W/lacking incineration & sterilization, wastes are segregated & packaged in
special colored-coded & labeled containers for transportation & treatment
elsewhere prior to landfilling

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CHEMICAL WASTES
 TV sets, heat pacers, earth satellites, aerosol cans, pesticides, spectrum of
plastic materials
 degreasing compounds, wood preservatives, pesticides, heavy metals & other
liquid contaminants
 Cannot be handled by the conventional processes of treatment
 Must be recycled & reclaimed

Effects:
 Groundwater contamination
 Hazardous to marine flora & fauna
 Serious impacts to the ecosystem

Organic Wastes:
 Bioaccumulative, POPs & fat soluble
 PCB’s and some pesticides have carcinogenic & mutagenic effects
 Source: incineration of fossil fuels, organic materials, and MSWs

Inorganic Pollutants
 Hg, Pb, Cd, As even in ppb are biological poisons
 Accumulate in organic matter in soil & sediments & taken up by growing plants
 Can build up in human organs & tissues to toxic levels
 Low pH can increase the transportability of these contaminants making them
more soluble

COMPONENTS OF HAZARDOUS WASTES MANAGEMENT PLAN

1. Preparing an inventory
2. Waste minimization
3. Storage & transport
4. Spillage
5. Treatment & disposal

HAZARDOUS WASTES MINIMIZATION:

1. Change materials purchasing & control methods
2. Improve housekeeping practices
3. Change production methods
4. Substitute less toxic materials
5. Reduce wastewater flows
6. Segregate wastes
7. Recycle or reclaim wastes
8. Treat waste to reduce volume &/or toxicity
9. Delist wastes that do not have hazardous characteristics

Treatment and Disposal of Chemical Wastes:

1. Physical Processes
 centrifugation, sedimentation, flotation & filtration
 use of activated carbon to get rid of toxic organics
 Reverse osmosis, dialysis or electrodialysis
 Stripping & distillation

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2. Chemical Processes
 oxidation (of cyanide to cyanates, by alkaline chlorination)
 reduction (of Cr+6 to Cr+3, by SO2)
 precipitation (of Cd, Hg, etc. by sulfides)
 pH adjustments (of lime slurry, by spent pickle liquor)
 ion exchange (removing dissolved metallic & non-metallic inorganics)
 stabilization/solidification (of inorganic sludges & contaminated soils by
binding agents)

3. Biological Processes
 aerobic biological processes (rapid microbial growth)
 e.g. land farming of oily wastes (economical & effective treatment
method provided that the waste is not applied too frequently & is spread
in thin enough layers
 e.g. bacterial leaching for the extraction of heavy metals from
wastewater sludges

4. Incineration
 thermal oxidation of of organic matter into CO2, H2O & inert ash
 partially combusted organics, inorganic particulate matter, acid gases
(such as HCl) & sulfur oxides may be produced depending on the feed
 Rotary kiln incinerators are most commonly used
 cement kilns, boilers & industrial furnaces have proven effective for the
destruction of hazardous organic wastes

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